


Present

by baeberiibungh



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, Angst, Good Uncle Peter, Guilt, Happy Ending, Kisses, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nothing Sexual, Past Abuse, Past Underage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 18:18:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8067799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baeberiibungh/pseuds/baeberiibungh
Summary: Stiles receives a humongous package and finds a beautiful surprise inside…





	

It was Friday and the seniors were bunking. Stiles was piles deep in blankets in his bed, the Sheriff was at the station and there was nothing to break his sweet sweet slumber. There were plans to go out in the evening with Scott, but they were vague at best with Allison and Isaac in the mix now. So when the front door bell rang, Stiles muttered a curse and shoved his head deeper in the blankets. When the bell rung a few more times, Stiles threw away the blankets, expression pissed and already thinking up words to tell the person off in. It was a good sleep, damn it. He fumed as he got up and went down with loud steps, pulling the door open suddenly to start shouting only to stop short at the UPS man, holding a humongous package.

It was so ridiculously big and presumably heavy that the delivery guy was bowed back to balance it on his hands. Stiles also could not stop wondering how in the fucking hell did this guy even manage to press the bell.

“Stiles Stilinski?” the man gasped?

“Yeah, is that for me?” Stiles asked with wide eyes.

The man rolled his eyes before saying, “It is if your name is Stiles Stilinski. This was a bitch to carry. Here. But just be careful. It sure is heavy.”

“Uh, thanks,” Stiles said, before taking the package. The man was not lying. It really was very heavy. Stiles just dropped it slowly onto the floor and pushed it inside so it cleared the door. Stiles turned back to the delivery man whose name tag read James and then signed the clipboard he had in the crook of his hand. Stiles signed it and gave it back before calling out a bye to James’ retreating back. Closing the door, Stiles pushed the carton till the sofa before sitting down on it. 

The box was 3x3x3 feet, a perfect square with a name and address stroked off in black marker pen with Stiles name and address in the same pen just under it. Stiles could make out the name if he tried but left to investigate that part for later. He went and got a knife from the kitchen and sliced open the tape holding the flaps of the box.

Inside, on top of perhaps a dozen colorfully wrapped presents lay a couple of pages stapled together with something handwritten in a clean script. Stiles pulled out the pages and eyed the presents once more before starting reading.

“Dear Kate,

Happy Birthday. 

I know you won’t get this package for two more years, but I just wanted to give you this from the other side of adulthood. I sincerely hope we are still together and our love is strong as ever. I cannot describe how happy and whole and amazing you make me feel. I also cannot wait for the day I can proudly introduce you to my family as my girlfriend. 

I sometimes feel impatient and angry at the world for not understanding, for already deciding things are wrong just because they are not the norm. So you are older, but it does not make my love for you weak or a flying fancy. So I am younger, but it does not make me less capable of looking after you and loving you always. 

Everytime we kiss, I feel so accomplished, so complete and loved in a way I find lacking in my crowded family. Nowadays I am always thinking about you. Laura and Peter keep asking why I keep smiling on my own. I make excuses but I think I would have love to say that I was thinking of you. They will tease me sure, but not too bad, because they would know how much I love you and how very much you mean to me.

I understand the secrecy, at least till I am 18, which is the year you will be getting the gift. I hope I am with you when you open this and see my little tokens of love and affection. I love you, and I love you the best, because you are the person I learned to love from. It was an unbelievable stroke of luck that I found you and I hope we will always be in love, forever.

Yours,

Till Eternity,

Derek.”

‘Derek’, thought Stiles, did that mean Derek Hale? He folded back the open flap and sure the package was initially addressed to a Kate Argent. Stiles peered at the sides of the package and didn’t see the name of the sender. So he slowly starting taking out the presents. Stiles paused for a bit, worried if he should open the presents or not since they were not initially meant for him. But then again, they were addressed to him clearly too so he can. In the end, his natural curiosity got the better of him and Stiles started opening the presents one by one.

The first box was a collection of earrings. Stiles didn’t know much about them, hoops being the only thing that he could name, but each pair in the box, perhaps ten in total, looked unique. There was this gold lined clear glasses that looked like butterflies. Gems drooping from a small pin. Long strands of thin chains that danced at little movements. At the bottom of that box was a note in the same handwriting that said, “I know how you like earrings but don’t want to wear any I give in case someone asks and you hate lying as it is. These are the ones I think would look prettiest on your beautiful face. I hope you like them ;)”

The box after was heavier and when he opened it, he saw a stack of graphic novels. There was another note that said, “I see how you like to read the books I read, the kinds you mostly like. These are some of my favourite and some I want to read. I sure will be borrowing them off you after you get them ;)”

The next box had a stack of movie tickets that looked a bit odd. They were of movies that came out a few years ago. There was also a cigar there that smelled a bit musty. On the bottom lay a stack of decreasing notes of varying denominations starting from one dollar to a hundred. The note there said, “These are mock tickets for movies I want to see with you when I am 18, in an actual movie hall. I got them made through Peter for a project I said. They will apparently be released after my 18th birthday and I really, really want to hold your hand in the dark as my lap is covered with popcorn and other treats. And make out at the driving point after, not go to the hotels you insist are more anonymous. I am asking two years early now, so don’t say no. The cigar is for after, as per Peter and Indira, Peter’s wife says giving money like that brings good luck. It’s just in case I am short a few bucks for the soda :)”

The other box was a large one, and when Stiles pulled the sealed packet out, he saw that it was a jacket. The note there said, “This is my jacket and I want you to wear it, please. And now you know what happened to your favourite jacket of mine. ;)

Stiles opened a bigger one next and found it full of chocolates, foreign made chocolate that still looked good. Stiles opened one of the smaller ones and took a bite. It tasted ok so he kept it on the side with the box containing the graphic novels. The note in that box just said, “For your dark chocolate cravings. ;)”

There were more boxes after that, one containing shoes, another pretty dresses and another a muddle of teeny teensy glass teddy bears. There were notes in every of them, affirming again and again how much Derek loved Kate. How Derek had bought each gift for Kate with attention to detail. His love shone through beautifully from the care he exhibited and the smitten love hearts he drew on his notes. Stiles could not help but feel a little jealous of Kate for being loved like this, in that intensity.

When the large box was finally empty, Stiles flipped it and yes, right there was written from Derek Hale, Hale House, Beacon Hills Preserve.

There was no doubt whose present this had been. Stiles knew Derek well. They were a big family who had lived in the preserve. Then a fire had happened and everyone had perished except Derek and his older sister Laura and his comatose uncle Peter. Derek and Laura had left for some months to straighten out the legal matters, but those done, they had returned, renting a house in the middle of the town, but secluded amidst a big garden with a forest backing them. Their uncle had come out of coma then and had lived convalescing at their house with around the clock care. 

Peter Hale was now well enough to walk through the streets of Beacon Hills. He had become so familiar that his half face of scars didn’t gets stared at too much either. Peter was one of Stiles’ favourite customers at the small café he worked in. He had an evening shift throughout the week and the late night shift on the weekends. Peter came mostly in the evenings, tapping his cane and snarking with sass with Stiles that always made his day. Peter liked him, Stiles knew, but the one Stiles liked (Sometimes it almost felt like love) was Derek, Peter’s nephew. Derek was usually the last customer on the weekends. Peter accompanied him some days and some days he went alone. 

It was the same order of a basic black and a muffin to go. Derek did not make small talk, but waited patiently for Stiles to fill out his order. Stiles knew Laura the best of the three because Laura was the school counselor. The three remnants of the Hales were still thriving in Beacon Hills and Stiles wished Derek could look a little less sad.

So, that night, when Stiles was on night shift and Derek came by as usual, with Peter in tow this time, Stiles just said ‘Hey Derek’. The greeting seemed to surprise him before Derek returned with a neutral ‘Stiles’ before ordering. Peter of course had his sweet monstrosity and both walked out, Peter giving a jaunty wave over his shoulder at Stiles with a wink while Derek had one hand wrapped around Peter’s elbow to steady him as he had foregone the cane.

The next night, Derek came alone and Stiles thought that there could not be a better opportunity, so when he passed the drink as Derek was rooting in his wallet for change, Stiles said, “So, um, Derek, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Derek looked up at him at that, a slight suspicious gleam in his eyes before he nodded for Stiles to go on.

Stiles rubbed at the edge of the bar and said, “I don’t really know why it got addressed to me or who did because I don’t think it was you, but I just got this big package delivered to me yesterday and it was from you to someone named Kate and I wanted to ask if you wanted it, and um, I may have eaten half of the chocolate, but I could totally pay for that and I am also reading one of the book and I could perhaps return them to you later because I want to read them whole, and um, dude, Derek are you OK?” Stiles finished in alarm because Derek was looking like someone had punched him hard in his solar plexus and his eyes were wide were fear and sheer grief was descending on his face and it looked like he was not breathing.

“Derek?” Stiles called out worryingly, before putting his hand on Derek’s hand, still half in his wallet. That contact seeming to jolt Derek right out of it back to reality. He now looked like he would maybe faint. “Hey, hey, are you ok?” Stiles asked with more stress as he though stupidly if he could make it over the bar in one lunge like some kind of action hero. Derek seemed to collect himself better at Stiles’ sharp tone. He rubbed his face, places a few notes, grunted out, ‘I have to leave now’ and left without his coffee or muffin.

Stiles stared after him. After waiting for half as hour, in case Derek came back for his coffee, Stiles closed the shop and drove home. He looked through the presents again and laced everything back inside the bigger box and decided to just deliver it back to Derek. He could do whatever he wanted with it.

Stiles meant to go to the Hale’s new house or bring the issue up with Laura at school or even Peter who was actually sporting a shiner the next time Stiles saw him, but he ultimately could not. It felt like betraying a trust. A trust that even Stiles wasn’t sure how Derek had won, but he did. On the next Friday, Stiles asked Peter how Derek was doing, and Peter just gave a mysterious smile before leaving. 

On Saturday, Stiles decided to go and deliver the package himself this time, possibly in Derek’s hands. He lifted it up, all repacked and the drove to the new Hale house. Stiles knew that Laura would be out with friends and Peter had loudly told him of his plans to visit his doctor next day. So Stiles knew that that was no chance of meeting the others and Derek would be able to keep this secret if he wanted to.

Stiles got down there and started lugging the package to the front door, which was opened by a bare footed Derek five steps before Stiles could press the bell. Stiles put the box near Derek’s feet and Derek curled his toes away as he took a step back. He was looking at the box as if it contained a dozen of snakes. 

“I think this belongs to you. I am sorry I opened it. I mean it was addressed to me though. Um. I am, I am sorry for what happened and I am sure if Kate were around she would have appreciated this,” Stiles said.

“She did not deserve anything more from me,” Derek said in a venomous voice.

“Oh. Bad breakup, I see. Do you, do you want me to like throw this away, cause if you want I will, no problem for me,” Stiles offered.

“No, no need for that. I will take care for this,” said Derek before he bent down to pick up the box before he stopped and asked, “Did you finished the book you were reading? If you want, you can, can keep it I mean.”

“I finished one, and don’t worry, I wrote the names and will download the ebooks to read later, these are yours,” Stiles said.

“If you want, you can keep them, I won’t mind,” Derek said.

“But, um, they were for Kate right? I, um, ok wow this feels awkward, maybe I should have just had it delivered to,” Stiles muttered, his face getting red for some reason.

“Ok, ok, I will get you the new editions. I think a few of them have sequels of them too now,” Derek Said.

“Oh wow man, you so don’t need to do that, I can totally get them free online, no charge,” Stiles said shaking his hands before him to make Derek understand how such an action was not needed. 

“Stiles, let me thank you, let me, just, I want to thank you. Please,” said Derek. Stiles saw something in his face then that made him nod slowly. Derek then picked up the box and turned to go in before he turned back again to look at Stiles and blurted out, “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

Stiles blinked and then said, “Ok” and stepped into the new Hale house. Peter would find him three hours later still there, watching a movie with Derek and join them for a dinner of pizza. Laura came last, her cheeks flushed and eyes bright as he kissed the top of Peter, Derek and even Stiles’ head before going off to sleep tipsily. They sat sitting like that till the movie finished and the one after that till Stiles had to leave for his shift. He waved a bye at the duo before walking out and Derek looked at Peter. Peter was smug and Derek wanted to punch him again. He settled for not sharing the popcorn.

Later, much later, when Stiles would come over directly from school to see Derek and bring croissants for Laura and kiss Derek shyly on his cheek and Derek would be as shy and grave in his love, later still when Stiles came from the college and just sit plastered to Derek without talking, just soaking his essence in with a quite smile on his face, another mirroring on Derek’s face, Derek finally asked Peter why did he send that package to Stiles. Not the how, because that would have been foolish, very foolish indeed, but the why.

Peter said, “Because you smelled a little less like walking death every time you went and saw him and he smelled more concerned than pitying every time he got to see you so of course I had to meddle. That is why good uncles do Derek. They meddle to bring love to stubborn guilt ridden nephews because they deserve the happiness. To bring back the man out of a shell. To have my family, the scant of us left behind now, together in happiness and hope, in love and trust, because, we Derek, each three of us deserve it.” Derek hugged Peter then, long and hard while Peter blinked his misty eyes, his hands rubbing the heaving shoulders of Derek as he sobbed quietly into his uncle’s shoulder for all that had done, for all that had happened, for how foolish he had been and how he cannot hold a 15 yr old kid to emotional ransom forever. 

That night when Stiles came over, Derek told him ‘I love You’ for the first time in between soft sweet little kisses.

**Author's Note:**

> Dark Chocolate has a maximum shelf life of 2 yrs, bt just let it be for the story as I wanted Stiles to have chocolate. This was based on a dream I had except my dream also had Chandler and Monica from friends dancing in baseball uniforms in the middle of the road. Thanks for reading. Please comment and give kudos. No beta.


End file.
